Looping trough for rolling mills



April 1, 1930. J. R. GEORGE I LOOPING TROUGH FOR ROLLING MILLS Original Filed May 16, 1925 -J/OITZC Patented Apr. 1, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE j JEROME R. GEORGE, 011 WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T MORGAN CON- STRUCTION COMPANY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION .OF

MASSACHUSETTS LOOPING TROUGH FOR ROLLING MILLS ori g' ina lapplication filed. May 16, 1925, SerialNo. 30,857. Divided and this application filed February 17,

1928. Serial The present invention relates to rolling mills and, in particular, to apparatus employed between successive stands of rolls in a rolling mill for controlling the passage of the; stock between said stands. The present application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 30,857, filed May 16,

1925. The apparatus of the present invention involves a looping trough of novel con- I struction and arrangement, the function of which is to make provision for the formation of an underfeed loop in the stock between adjacent stands of rolls of a rolling mill, upon an excessive take-up of the stock by the last of said adjacent stands of rolls,

all as more fully describedv hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which-'- Fig. 1 is a plan view of apparatus which illustrates the invention.

' Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are sectional views, on an enlarged scale, the sections being taken on the lines 33 and 44, respectively, of Fig. 1.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures.

Looping troughs of various types for guiding the stock between successive roll passes are of common occurrence in rolling mills. In many instances they take the form of repeaters for deflecting or curving the stock through 180 or 360, being generally -used under these conditions in connection with twist delivery guides for twisting or or 90, as required. Most looping troughs of the repeater type are designed for overfeeding of the stock; the latter runs out of the trough on the convex side thereof and forms a loop of varying size, dependent upon thenamount of over-feed, on the floor of the m1 r The present invention relates to looping troughs which are not of the repeater type, being applicable to rolling mills where the stock is not required to be curved through 180 or 360 between successive passes. The troughs of the present invention are particularly applicable to rolling mills where the successive stands of rolls are arranged in ,underfeed loop. 15 represents a stand of ceiving rolls 16, 16 are rotated is at times 15 to one set of receiving rolls 16, and the other to the other set of receiving rolls 16.

of them will suffice for both. turning the stock on its axis through 45 f erable distance between successive stands.

In such a rolling mill, it is manifestly impracticable to use a straight trough between widely separated successive stands of rolls, inasmuch as the mill must handle many clifferent bars of varying size and temperature, and the first ends of these bars must be presented to the pass of the succeeding stand ofrolls in a variety of different ways. Consequently, it is desirable in such a mill to provide a guide trough that will permit the formation of a loop inthe stock, and this has been accomplished, in respect of an overfeed loop, by the apparatus shown and described in Edwards Patent No.1,290,942, datedJanuary 14, 1919. A

' Referring to the drawings, I have shown a constructionadapted to the handling of an &0

reducing rolls of a rolling mill, from which the stock may be delivered to either of two stands of reducing rolls 16, 16, and it will be assumed that the speed at which said re- A.

more than sufficient to compensatefor the elongation effected "by the rolls 1 5. A pair of looping troughs 17 17 are provided, one

for guiding the stock from the delivery rolls The two troughs 17, 17, are identical in construction, and therefore a description of one Each trough 17 is preferably made in sections, and its outer wall 18," as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, for the entire'length of the trough, overlies the groove or recess 19 within which the'stock is confined; this construction of the outer wall 18 efiectually prevents the stock, when it spills out of the trough, from being deflected outwardly ;'and as hereinafter described, thecontourof the trough and the construction of its inner wall is'such as to insure that when the stock does spill out of the trough, it will invariably spill inwardly.

To this end, the receiving, end of each. trough 17 curves sharply outwardly, and this outward curvature is maintained for a considerableportion of the length of the trough stock invariably takes the path outlined by extending, as shown in Fig. 1, for substantiah ly the entire length of the first trough section a 20. Then, the curvature in the second trough section 21 is reversed, and at the end of this reversal of curvature, occurring at approximatel'ytwo-thirds the length of the trough, a third trough section 22 provides another gentle reverse curvature to bring'the stock intoalinement with the passes of the receiving rolls 16. The inner wall 23 of trough 17 as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, is adapted to pro mote the formation of an underfeed loop; that is to say, for the first part of its length, the wall 23 has its inner surface formed with an easy slope, as shown at 24, thereby to facilitate the escape of the stock from the groove or recess 19 in an inward direction, as indicated by the broken line 25, Fig. 1. The stock assumes the position indicated by the broken line 25 onthe support or floor 26 when the receiving rolls 16 take up faster than the stock is delivered by the rolls 15. Toward the delivery end of the trough 17, the wall 23 of said trough has its inner surfaceso formed as to make the roove 19 an undercut groove, thereby confining the stock within said groove and insuring its delivery to the receiving guides associated with therolls 16.

' According to the invention, the direction in which the loop will travel as it leaves the trough is automatically determined by the curvature of the trough, and the walls of said trough are given the necessary slope to facilitate the escape of the stock in the desired direction of travel. Also, according to the invention, the troughs are provided in duplicate, which allows either double strand rolling, with the stock occupying both troughs simultaneously, or single strand rolling, with the successive lengths or stock directed alternately to the two troughs. Although of particular utility in connection with stands of rolls drivenindependently, enablingthe operator to regulate the relative speeds as desired, because the loops will compensate for variations in the amount of stock passing through the rolls, the invention is not confined to such an arrangement, but is applicable as well to stands of rolls where the speed relationsarefixed, and when so used it permits the operator to vary the section rolled in either pass, thus toimprove the product and to increase the tonnage of the mill;

In operation, the first end of any piece of the yfulllength of the trough, and if there is an underteed of any piece by the stand of rolls 15., the last end of said piece takes a somewhat shorter path, as indicated by the broken a line 25-, Fig.1. a This makes it impossible for the first end ofthe piece nextfollowing to overtakesaidlast end, no matter how closely the piecestollow each otheaand hence there isneverany interference or overlappingor formation oi cobbles .111 the IGCBIVIIlg guide of roll stand 16. The undercut portion of the final trough section 22, as illustrated in Fig. 3, only extends far enough back from the stand ofrolls 16, 16 to insure proper entry of the stock, by way of trough 19, into the receiving guide that is associated with said rolls 16, 16. That is to say, the wall. 23, rear- Wardly of the section line 33, Fig. 1, has a section more resembling that of Figs. 2 and 4 than that of Fig. 3, and hence the stock of the underi'eed loop 25, in its zone of reentry to the trough 19, is not dragged over as sharp a corner as that shown by the wall 28 in Fig. 3. Even if the stock of the underieed loop 25 isdrawn over such a sharp corner, no damage to the stock results, because of the extremely low coefficient. of friction of hot steel.

I claim: I

1.. The combination with two successive stands of rolls in a rolling mill, arranged sub-' 1 stantially in tandem, of an open trough for guiding the stock between the passes of said stands of rolls in a rolling mill, arranged sub-:

stantially in tandem, of an opentrough for guidingthc stock between the passes of said stands, said trough being substantiall nor mal at both ends to the adjacent rol axes,

to provide between said ends a curved portion, with the outside wall of said curved portion sloping inwardly, to prevent outward deflection of the stock, and the inside wall similarly sloped to permit the stock to escape from the trough by inward deflection when there is an underfeed of said stock by the first stand of rolls.

3. Apparatus of the class described, comprising. two successive stands of reducing rolls arranged substantially in tandem, with an open trough for guiding the stock between the passes of said stands, said trough curving outwardly from its receiving end, then reversing its curvature intermediately, and

finally curving inwardly near its delivery Y end, in combination with means for permitting the escape of the stock from. said trough over the Inner wall thereof, in the event of an underi'eed' of said stock by the first of said stands of rolls.

4. The combination, with two successive stands of rolls in a rolling mill, arranged substantially in tandem, of an-open trough for guidingthe stock between the passes of said stands, said trough curving outwardly from .ltS receiving end, then reversing its curvature intermediately, andfinally curving inwardly near its delivery end, with the inner wall of said trough, from its receivingendto its final curved portion so sloped as topermit the escape of" stock from said trough in the event of an underfeed of said stock by the first stand of rolls. 7

5. Apparatus of the class described, comprising two successive stands of reducing rolls arranged substantially in tandem and adapted to operate siinultaneously'on a single piece of stock, and a trough for guiding the stock from the first to the second stand of rolls, said trough curving outwardly from its re ceiving end and then reversing its curvature intermediately to provide a path between said roll stands of substantially greater length than their straight line distance apart, a portionof the inner wall ofsaid trough being shaped to permit the escape of the stock from said trough in the event of an underfeed of said stock by the first stand of rolls, whereby the path of said stock between said rolls is shifted inwardly of said reversely curved trough portions.

Dated this 10th day of February, 1928. JEROME R. GEORGE. 

